So long, November

Today was brutal

It looked a little like this (via Dangerous Minds):

I'm off to drink a bottle of wine and forget it ever happened.

Feeding the ducks at Buddy Attick

Thea and Tucker

Tucker stays with us occasionally while his moms are away. My dogs seem to love having him around, though he exhausts them.

Liam decorates his own cookie while Tucker watches carefully

"The boy has been known to drop things. Tasty things. Drop it. Drop it. Drop drop drop drop drop drop drop drop drop drop drop drop. DROP IT NOW, BOY."

Portrait of Nylonthread by Liam

I often hand over my phone to the kids to play with. Thea loves Pocket Frogs and Mahjong, just like her mom. Liam's current favorite is one where he burns ants with a magnifying glass. I'm not sure whether or not to be appalled.

At any rate, Liam took this picture of Nylonthread at a party we were all at. I love it!

Holiday detox with the Japanese version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Thanksgiving was wonderful, and it was great to see family I hadn't seen in almost a year. But, of course, it's also a lot of work. Tonight I relaxed on the couch in front of a fire with perfectly made martinis (thanks again, Floogee!) and a fantastic movie, Blood: The Last Vampire. I can't even begin to tell you how much I loved it in all its cheesy, bloody, stylish glory.

Thanksgiving dinner

I can't believe we were so busy getting dinner on the table that we didn't get one picture from Thanksgiving. Shameful.

It was a huge dinner, too. My sister Heather and her partner Amy drove down for the day and brought an incredible vegan spread with them. We started with some cheeses, breads, olives, and pickled okra on the table while we cooked, and El Diablito cocktails made from tequila, Grand Marnier, and Mexican grapefruit soda. For dinner, we had a turkey from Polyface Farms, mashed potatoes, stuffing, grilled tofu, roasted sweet potatoes, rolls, vegan cream of onion soup (which was fantastic), brussels sprouts, salad, vegan coconut cream pie, icebox cake, and a pumpkin pie from Trader Joe's that I bought last weekend but that molded before we got to it. Not that it mattered. We certainly had plenty of food.

All in all, it was a nice holiday.

Liam is thankful for food

Me, too! And we certainly should have enough of it tomorrow.

Liam won at tic tac toe

Fair and square!

Liam's toes

Liam is starting to learn how to read. As he concentrated on the letters in front of him, I noticed his toes crossing and curling rhythmically. The crazy thing is, I do the same thing when my mind is racing and I can't sleep.

Thanksgiving prep

Breakfast at the Royal Restaurant

In Alexandria, Va.

Bruised at work

Both internally and externally. (I walked into a badly placed end table rushing to a meeting that was equally painful.)

Liam is five years old today!

What a big kid!

Not much has changed since last year. Here are some things that have remained steady:

• Liam is still a sunny, adorable, cheerful kid. He's incredibly good-natured and easy-going, which makes him a blast to hang out with. 
• He's pretty much always up for anything and rarely complains.
• He doesn't even cry when he gets a shot.
• Like last year, his birthday dinner was Mike's macaroni and cheese (has to be made by Mike) and Ikea's meatballs, with assorted cupcakes for dessert.
• Thea is is best friend, and he'll do just about anything she asks.

But he's grown a lot, too. Here are a few changes:

• He's always been a tall kid, but now he towers over most kids his age (so much so that at a party, through a haze of three glasses of wine, I told someone he was turning six because I couldn't believe he was the same age as the kids who came up to his ears).
• He's getting a little more self-conscious and doesn't seem to enjoy being the center of attention.
• The punchline for his jokes is almost always "fart" now, instead of "poop." (I preferred "poop.")

Happy birthday to my sweet little man!

See also:

• Liam turned four years old yesterday!
• Liam is three years old today!
• Liam turned two years old today!
• Liam turns one!

Cupcakes for Liam's birthday tomorrow

My little man is turning 5. He asked for strawberry cake with blueberry icing. I also made mini cupcakes of strawberry and whipped cream icing, chocolate and whipped cream icing, and chocolate and strawberry icing for daycare tomorrow. I may have gone a bit overboard.

Grinderman at the 9:30

FANTASTIC!

My Japanese maple tree

Sunday matinee

The kids had a blast at Megamind, as did I. It's great that they're finally old enough to sit through an entire film.

I remember one of the first movies I ever saw: Walkabout. It thoroughly traumatized me and my sister, and I'm sure my parents, who couldn't possibly have known how gruesome and disturbing it was.

Thea on ice skates

Thea went to an ice skating party for Rosie. She's a natural!

Medeski, Martin, & Wood at the 9:30 Club

And I'm determined to have fun despite the Stoli-swilling asshole crowding me.

Blue Blazer

The Recipe

2½ oz rye or bourbon whiskey or Brandy
2½ oz boiling water
2 sugar cubes
Lemon peel
FIRE

The leaves will fall, so let them

Today was a tough day at work, one of many that has been absolutely relentless. Near the end, though, I was standing in a colleague's office giving him an update, and I happened to glance out the window. The trees looked so beautiful, as they do at this peak month just before the cold settles in. It was like a friendly reminder that life is all about cycles and that this too will pass. Don't get too invested in the good or bad; neither is here to stay.

I want a snuggly puppy!

My latest obsession

When I am stressed, I tend to get a little OCD. This game, which is all about patiently categorizing and combining small, pretty frogs in various pretty environments, is ridiculously soothing.

Sometimes the weekend is far too short

Saturday night dance party

Brent and Chris came over for dinner. Chris, the kids, and I ate fancy cheeses and bread, then danced to disco music while the menfolk made dinner (satay, summer rolls, chickpea curry). It was fantastic.

Fifteen Authors: Facebook meme

Because I need something to blog about, here are the first fifteen authors that I can think of who have influenced me and stuck with me (in approximately my life's chronological order):

1. Albert Camus
2. Jean-Paul Sartre
3. Sylvia Plath
4. Wallace Stevens
5. e. e. cummings
6. Miss Manners
7. Rebecca Brown
8. Regina Marler
9. Pat Califia
10. Sydney Biddle Barrows
11. Leo Steinberg
12. Mary Garrard
13. Samuel R. Delany
14. Jeffrey Eugenides
15. Paul Harrington

Hmm. I think this list may require some explanation. Another blog post topic! This meme keeps on giving.

Kinetic sculpture at the Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore

There's a whole room of kinetic sculptures at the Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. You activate them each individually by pressing a button, right at kid level. This is one of our favorites, a guy in a bathtub that has his spaghetti dinner coming out of one faucet, sauce out of the other. I find it to be grotesque, foul, and mesmerizing.

Rally for Sanity (and/or Fear)

Floogee and I went downtown on Saturday for John Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity. It could have been a lot of fun, except that the metro was running on a Saturday schedule despite 500,000 more riders than usual and was jam-packed.

I loathe crowds. No, seriously, they make me irrationally angry and anxious. So by the time we got off the train, I was thisclose to a panic attack. Floogee took me to my closest favorite bar and lined up tequila shots in front of me until I calmed down. At that point, I was so over the experience that I just wanted to go home. I guess you could say I was at the fear side of the rally.

I detoV!

Happy Day of the Dead

Today is the first day of Nablopomo. I've done it every year. Right now it feels impossible, like so much else in my life, but I feel compelled to try. It'll be a miracle if I can make it.